Prefetch Folder

[AMD-USR_JL]

I found another trick to speed up your system. :D

Windows Xp has a prefetching folder. It is suppose to make your system by pre-loading files that you use frequently at startup. This does help with boot times, since everything will already be loaded.

The bad things is that it will start to load processes that you have used only once or twice. After a while these prefecthed processes will start to build up and steal your processor(s) cycles. You can easily delete the prefetch files though. They are at C:\Windows\Prefetch. You can go in there and delete only certain processes, but the best way is to just delete all of them.

The next time you restart your pc it will boot a little slower. Windows will only put files that you have selected to load at startup back into the prefetch folder. The 2nd time you reboot it will be fast again. :D All those little processes that are stealing your cycles will be gone.

It is recommended to empty it every month. If you think that is too much work then you can schedule it to run automatically by doing this.

"Tech Republic" Says. Just open a command prompt, type copy con killpref.bat, and press [Enter]. Next, type the following commands:

Echo off

del c:\windows\prefetch\*.* /q


Finish by pressing [F6] and then [Enter]. You can then run the killpref.bat file from the command line or Explorer window, or run it as a scheduled task

Haven't tried it yet, but it sounds cool. Have fun deleting the files! :D

[Ototero]

I can vouch for deleting all the pre-fetch stuff. I do it manually once in a while.

Causes NO harm at all.

[drezha]

Cheers

Will make the .bat file and run it everynow and then.

[PcManiac]

I never thought of checking that folder before... I always just run msconfig, and de-select all the startup items I don't want. I am not sure if this does the same thing or not though.